I'm in the throes of joining some scrap squares together for a project that I can't show yet, as the recipient definitely reads this blog and I don't want her to see! So, here's some teasers for you!

Ha! All will be revealed next week....oooh, the suspense...... *grin*I have been a very fortunate bunny this week with TWO parcels arriving from the US!

A package from Sandy Leigh contained the cutest collapsible water sprayer, a felt needle book and a pot of buttons with a big ol' button top...it's sooooooooo cute!! I love it, my soul sister Sandy, thank you so much!

The other was from Deb... I squealed... a LOT!! Gorgeous fat quarters, buttons, pretty ribbons and a quilting mag! What a thoughtful prezzy, Deb, thank you so much. I will be using this stash addition to make stuff for my charity :-)Another enormous surprise was this amazing artwork:

This is by WOYWWer Diana Taylor, of the Velvet Moth Studio. I had really admired it on her post the other week, because I adore both hares and spirals. I've really got a thing about them. And lo and behold...what should turn up but the print. Thank you so much, Diana...I'm completely bowled over by it and am going to get it framed properly then it hang it by my dining table. You are extremely clever and very generous...I am one very lucky bunny!And on my outdoors desk is this little lot....

Plug plants for potting on. That's going to keep me busy then! Honestly, I go to work for a rest these days!!! Have a great week :)

I have found that getting older has meant a change in what makes me content. Simpler things, mainly - like pegging out the washing this week. listening to the birds singing and watching the aerial courtship display of the two red kites that live close by. Or seeing my primroses, celandines and daffodils finally flowering in my hedgerow.

Music, as always. My family.....even more important after hearing of events like the bombs in Boston. Which makes the sharing, love and generosity of this amazing chain of WOYWWers around the world even more vital.

As I said, simple but by no means less profound.....

Right then, what's on the desk....

I was just laying out fabrics in order to make a knitting needle case for myself.. but I'm not sure about which combination I'm going to use. The two large pieces of fabric actually look better together in reality than they do in this picture. Hmmmmm.......we'll see.

I've been zipping even more!! Wahoo...

I ran up this little zipped make up bag as a quick birthday prezzy for a friend and colleague. The zip construction has definitely improved with practise! We teach the kids about resilience in school...well, I've had to reinforce mine with zips!!

I still love this pretend Radley Dog fabric..it works so well in various projects!

I was really lucky to win a prize in Cindy's 500th Bloggaversary Giveaway! This very stylish ATC, flower headed pin, charming little vintage pendant and a Quest Seeker coin came through my letterbox this morning :) Thank you so much, Cindy...many congratulations on a bloggy milestone!! May you have 500 more at least!!!Finally.... one last simple pleasure...jigsaws! We always used to have one on the go when I was younger. But I'm like a dog with a bone when one is on the go...I simply HAVE to do it!! I think I'm going to get this last shot made up into a 1,000 piece one...for my DH's birthday maybe......

Well, a zipped bag for Sue H to put her cable/circular needles in. It's only the second zip I've done, so don't look too closely! I certainly wouldn't get good marks on The Great British Sewing Bee.... I'm really enjoying that programme and want the big hairy bloke to win, because I like his Steampunk costume background :)

You can see the tutorial on my iPad. Thank you Jaki for posting this - it was really helpful and very straightforward for a zippy ignoramus like wot I is :)

The bag is to match a knitting needle roll for Sue...

I hope she likes them!

I bought some more fat quarters and material for lining stuff in Fabricland in Salisbury the other day...

Spotty dotty....and a real bargain! As were these...

It's like a mini William Morris willow leaf print and goes well with the chintzy roses. I shall be making more zipped bags with these beauties and filling them with toiletries, some beaded bracelets etc. They are going to go to the Salisbury Womens' Refuge, which is the WOYWW crop charity this time. If anyone would like to bring some items with them to the crop, they would be gratefully accepted. I've been buying BOGOFs and putting the second item aside for example. Hopefully they will bring a little luxury to the women who often have nothing.

And finally, our whole family has been enjoying the new woodburner but this sight made me laugh the other day....

They couldn't choose between the fire or the sunshine, so settled for a combination of the two. You can almost smell the singed fur!!

It's a little known fact that when Julia started this Wednesday party, someone said that it wouldn't last that long anyway....wow, how wrong were they??? Congratulations, me dear ol' mate, on a real achievement! Long may the sharing, creating, love, generosity, peeking, supporting and general madness continue :)

So, the bicentennial deskery:

I'm making another knitting needle case for someone and she asked for pinks, pastels and lilac....so, Sue H, I hope you like this selection! I'll get on with it upon my return from Wales where my brother, DH and I shall be decorating and prepping my dad's sheltered accommodation flat prior to his moving in....

I'm also going to make a zipped bag for Sue to put her cable and circular needles in, so off I trotted to my little local wool shop. Upon asking for a 7" zip, Ruth the owner, produced a whole handful and asked if I'd like the lot for a knockdown price! It was so knockdown that I haggled upwards, if you know what I mean :)

A zippy rainbow! So I'm going to use them to make small makeup type bags and send them to anyone who could use them for charity! It'll bust my stash as well...win-win-win!

I also did some sequin crafting with my mate Sue...she had been to Hobbycraft, you see......

I am Sue's Teaching Assistant at school...she has a lot to put up with me!! We spent a lovely couple of hours crafting while putting the world to rights :)

It was very therapeutic stabbing pins into polystyrene...good for relieving tension, lol!!

Ok....only log bloggers/tomboys should proceed any further!!!

Confession time: I stole a tree last week. Bad LLJ....actually, I didn't so much steal it as help a neighbour with an arboreal problem....they'd had a hawthorn hedge and couple of trees cut down and the wood was going to head for a bonfire..so I was cheeky and they were more than happy for my lads to get the wood back to our garden!

A gurt pile of wood....

"I'm the King of the Castle...."

But we quickly realised that a band saw and axe were not going to be enough to cope with that amount of wood! So we bought a chain saw...oh, yeah baby, vrrooom, vrrrooom. All four of us had a go at that and at splitting logs too.

LLJ in her element! You see, I've never been a manicured, neatly turned out sorta gal. Once a tomboy, always a chainsaw wielding, covered in sawdust woman! My dear old mum always said that I used to go out to play looking fairly respectable and come back looking as if I'd been dragged through a hedge....grin!! I haven't changed :)